Why should anyone outside New Zealand be interested in Maori history? Because it is rich in documents that recapitulate five hundred years of European imperial expansion and the responses to it by indigenous peoples. British humanitarians tried to avoid in New Zealand the tragic mistakes the Crown made in Australia, where aboriginal tribes were nearly exterminated in some cases and severely marginalized in others.

The Maori "history of struggle" is unique only in its relative success. The British enterprise of colonization and Christianization stimulated the formation of Maori...